Entries from June 2007 ↓
June 29th, 2007 — Concerts, Music
For the past twenty-five years, Sri Chinmoy has been travelling the length and breadth of the globe giving concerts of meditative music, offering those who attend the chance to let the music take them on a journey of the heart. This year alone he has given concerts in locations as diverse as Bulgaria, Thailand, Norway and Mongolia. However, this month saw him play closer to his New York home, as he travelled the West Coast of America to packed audiences in the cities of San Francisco and San Diego.
Sri Chinmoy has been singing ever since he was a small boy, and composing meditative music ever since early adolescence. Whilst in the spiritual community where he lived for twenty years, he learned to play the harmonium, a portable Indian version of the organ used to accomplany soulful songs. When he came to the West however, he felt an inner call to expand his capacities and take up more and more instruments to practise. Having freed himself from the mind’s confines through meditation, he is not subject to the usual hesitations and fears about not being good enough that normally occur when an adult takes up an instrument - he just dives straight in and gets joy just by making progress. In the early seventies, he began playing the esraj, a haunting Indian bowed instrument which is often the very first instrument he plays in his concerts. It is Sri Chinmoy’s favourite instrument, and one in which he is now regarded as being amongst the foremost exponents in the world. He went on to enlarge his repertoire to include instruments such as flute (Indian and Western), violin and cello.
In the mid 1980’s, Sri Chinmoy started performing dynamic and spontaneous improvisations on the grand piano. Nowadays, he will often perform similar improvisations on synthesizer, sampler or electronic percussion instruments; often these instruments are ingenious and novel creations by his students. All of this adds up to a very special concert experience for the audience - one in which Sri Chinmoy might be singing a soulful acapello song one minute, playing one of the hundreds of different instruments he has performed on over the years the next minute, and then bringing down powerful meditative energy with his synthesiser improvisations.
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June 25th, 2007 — Sri Chinmoy lifting, weightlifting
If Sri Chinmoy had not embarked upon the path of spirituality and attained such high meditative states, he might still have been a poet and singer, and perhaps even also an athlete - these are activities which have always given him tremendous joy and satisfaction right from his childhood. However weightlifting is something that, as a young man growing up in a spiritual community in South India, he never dreamed he would be doing 50 years later. He recalls disliking weightlifting intensely back then; he would lift 20 pounds twice a year so that he would do well in the shot put event in the decathlon.
And yet many years later, fast approaching the age of 76, Sri Chinmoy is regularly lifting astounding amounts of heavy weights. This new phase of his service to the world started in 1985, when Sri Chinmoy received an inspiration in the depths of his meditation: “I did not choose to start lifting weights.”, he says in an interview he gave a year later. “If one prays and meditates sincerely, somebody within him talks to him and tells him what to do and what not to do. You use the term ’God’; I say my ’Inner Pilot’. Last year, when I was praying and meditating, that somebody within me — you can call it an inner voice or a source of inspiration — asked me to start weightlifting. That is why I am doing it.”
Sri Chinmoy says it is only because he is able to act from the heart due to his meditation that he was able to take up weightlifting and embark upon the many feats of strength he has performed over the years. He has often spoken about the difference between the mind’s fear and hesitation and the heart’s spontaneous eagerness: “When I look at the weights with my heart, I am not frightened at all, no matter how heavy they are. But when I look at them with my mind’s eye, I am filled with fear. I have no idea how I am going to lift them.“
Therefore, when he lifts the weights, he tries to keep his mind completely silent, so that he can become an instrument for a much greater strength to operate in and through him: “Through God’s infinite Compassion and Grace, from my concentration, prayer and meditation I am able to bring forward inner strength, inner power, and use that power to increase my outer strength. The inner strength that enables me to lift elephants and airplanes is not my sole monopoly. Far from it! It is available to anyone who prays and meditates. Everyone can get inner strength from prayer and meditation.”
Sri Chinmoy has published several books of anecdotes detailing his experiences with weightlifting: they are an eye-opening view not only of a weightlifter, but of a spiritual Master trying to push out the boundaries of the possible. In these first-person accounts, we observe a contrast common to all spiritual Masters who try to offer what they have and are to help mankind progress - a contrast between the finite human frame which experiences discomfort and pain at these arduous activities, and the infinite consciousness of peace and delight, housed within that ’still small voice’ which spiritual Masters can access at will through their meditation. Time and again, Sri Chinmoy invokes the Infinite to help him perform these feats:
Absolutely the fastest way to make progress in the inner life is through gratitude. When I look at my 350-pound dumbbell, believe me, perhaps my mind is more frightened than yours! But when I offer my gratitude to the Supreme early in the morning, there is no fear at all. (11 September 1986)
The two following entries give a very direct insight into how spiritual Masters are able to surrender to the inner command all the time:
I am seriously thinking of stopping again after November 17th. I want to walk outside again in the fresh air with Nature. This gives me so much joy. During these last twelve months with my weightlifting I have reached a very high level. Now I want to concentrate on other things. (2 October 1999)
I had been planning to give up my weightlifting after the 17th, but the Supreme Himself has asked me to continue. This weightlifting brings joy and inspiration to thousands of people. So I will be taking my weightlifting equipment to Brazil and I do hope that I can make some progress there. (29 November 1999)
These diaries are also full of appreciation for all the distinguished figures in the weightlifting and bodybuilding world who inspired Sri Chinmoy and encouraged him to go further. Sri Chinmoy has always seen inspiration as being a two-way street - it is not just a case of him inspiring others, but of contributing alongside his fellow world-citizens to make a better world. Indeed he has frequently used his weightlifting to show his appreciation to men and women who have given inspiration to the world in their own fields, in an award ceremony called “Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart“. In this ceremony, Sri Chinmoy will lift these inspiring figures overhead in both body and spirit using a specially constructed overhead platform.
Resources:
Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting anecdotes have been published in the books My Weightlifting Tears and Smiles (Parts 1 and 2) and A Mystic Journey in the Weightlifting World (Parts 2-4). Other excerpts used in this article come from the Sri Chinmoy Answers series of books and also the book Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul. These books can be found on Sri Chinmoy Library.
Recent blog entries on Sri Chinmoy’s weightlifting:
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June 17th, 2007 — 3100 mile race, Self Transcendence
Today is the opening day of the Self Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, the longest certified road race in the world. For the best part of the next two months, 13 runners will be pacing around a half mile loop in Jamaica, New York for eighteen hours a day, aiming to push their capacities to the very limit in one of the toughest endurance tests imaginable. This is the eleventh holding of this epic race. Last year, Madhupran Schwerk from Germany shattered the race record, completing the distance in the astonishing time of 41 days and 8 hours. Madhupran is not competing this year, but three-time winner Ashprihanal Aalto from Finland will be looking to transcend last-year’s time of 43 days and 15 hours.
The race features three new competitors this year looking to try their hand at this most challenging of distances; Vlastimil Dvoracek and Petr Spacil (fresh - if that word can be applied - from his victory in the Self-Transcendence Ten-Day Race in April) from the Czech Republic, and Grahak Cunningham from Perth in Australia. Suprabha Beckjord, the sole female entrant in the race, is also the only person to complete all ten previous editions.
This race is organised by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, who have been putting on events for the sporting community around the world for the past 30 years. Many of their events, such as the 3100 Mile and Six and Ten Day Races in New York, the Triple-Triathlon in Australia or the 24 hour lake swim in Zurich, really offer a challenge to those who participate and an oportunity to extend their true potential.
You can watch a video of the 2007 race start on Sri Chinmoy TV…
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June 15th, 2007 — Enterprises
Sometimes Sri Chinmoy’s students will come together to open up an enterprise or business such as a shop or cafe - this means they can create a tranquil meditative atmosphere in which to work, and also for the public it means a peaceful oasis where they can come and unwind.
In an article just published on the Sri Chinmoy Centre site, cafe owner Toshala Elliot describes one such enterprise - the Blue Bird cafe in Auckland, New Zealand, which has now been running for over 13 years. ‘The Blue Bird’ is actually a name that Sri Chinmoy suggested for the cafe. Sri Chinmoy, in his artwork, has frequently used the bird as a metaphor for the unhorizoned flight of the soul; similarly blue, the colour of the sea and the sky also evokes that feeling of meditative vastness.
View:
- The beautiful new (and blue) website of the Blue Bird cafe
June 10th, 2007 — Philosophy
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
As you get older, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of feeling you have to take it easy and wind down the activities you were once doing. However, there are many people who feel they have to squeeze every drop out of life right till the end - for example Ed Whitlock, the Canadian who ran a sub-3 hour marathon at the age of 73. Another example is Sri Chinmoy, who at the age of 75, is still making eye-opening contributions in the field of poetry, art and strength fitness to show the world that, regardless of age, each one of us can still pursue our dreams to be a better person and work for a better world. He feels that old age only becomes a problem when one lives in the hesitating mind rather the ever-new heart: “The heart is always carrying newness, whereas the mind is carrying oldness.“, he says. “For the mind, there is no newness. By the second day, the mind loses all its enthusiasm because it feels that everything is too old, too old, too old. But for the heart, every day is new, like the sun.” [1]
He cites the example of the great cellist Pablo Casals, who still practised every day at 95 years old. Once someone asked him, “Why do you practise at your age? You have become the greatest cellist. Now you can rest!” Casals replied: “You want me to rest? You do not want me to make any progress? Every day I am playing the cello and I have been playing for years and years, ever since my childhood. Every day I feel I have made some progress.”
This statement is very insightful, as it reveals some very important requirements to keeping (and even increasing) your productivity as you stay into old age:
- Be a child at heart. “If you can feel that you are not thirty or forty or fifty years old, but only seven years old, you will be able to discard so many of your bad qualities in the twinkling of an eye…every day you will see your life in a new way and your sweet, sweeter, sweetest qualities you will be able to bring forward once again.” [2] Children have that wonderful quality of not nursing grudges or disappointments and seeing newness in everything. Think about it; how many times as a child you played with your favourite toy or watch your favourite videos; whereas as an adult we get bored of everything after one or two uses. Regaining these childlike qualities will help us have new and beautiful experiences no matter what age we are.
- Keep up a sense of discipline. No matter what age we are, we still have to practise daily to reach our goals. With a doable learning curve and a well-thought out schedule, anything is possible. Again the difference in the mind’s and heart’s perspectives comes into play here: With the mind’s jaded viewpoint, it can be very easy to regard discipline as something painful and monotonous, but like Pablo Casals you can instead view it as a chance for progress.
- Aim for progress rather than for success. Focusing on an external result (which might be beyond your control) can be frustrating if things don’t happen according to plan, whereas it is much easier to get joy from progress on a day-to-day basis. Success is often taken to mean a big result, whereas progress can lie in simple things like even persisting despite the odds.
References:
[1] New Adventures in Old Age, a talk published in The Mind-Jungles and the Heart-Gardens of Life
[2] From Sri Chinmoy Answers, part 6
Photograph by Pavitrata Taylor
June 4th, 2007 — Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy lifting, weightlifting
This weekend, fitness pioneer Sri Chinmoy was continuing his remarkable inspirational weightlifting program at the Naval Aviation Museum in New Jersey. During a non-stop lifting marathon, Sri Chinmoy lifted airplanes, cars, motorcycles and boats, battling age (he is now 75 years old) and injuries to his knee and shoulder. He used three kinds of lifts in the course of the afternoon: a one-arm overhead lift from a seated position, a seated calf raise and a standing calf raise (as shown in photo).
This extraordinary test of strength underscores Sri Chinmoy’s avid belief in the joy of self-transcendence and the unlimited potential of the human spirit. With his weightlifting he hopes to be an example to inspire others to fulfil all their hopes and dreams in their own field of endeavour, regardless of age. With these superhuman heavy lifts he tries to challenge himself, not others.
Some of the remarkable lifts included:
- Airplanes: An ‘Ultralight’ weighing 424 lbs, lifted with only one arm from a seated position and a Stearman Bi-plane and pilot weighing an enormous 2,952 lbs, lifted with a standing calf raise (see photo).
- Micro Cars: a BMW ISETTA Microcar weighing 1,011 lbs, lifted in an overhead two leg calf raise and also a 1,290 lb FIAT 500.
- Boats: a Hobi 16 Catamaran weighing 424 lbs lifted overhead with one arm only from a seated position and a Day Sailor Sailboat with sailor weighing 660 lbs lifted overhead with a one leg sanding calf raise. Carl Behrens, who was in his sailboat when Chimoy lifted it, said: “Well you know, I don’t know so much about the message, but it’s pretty impressive that a guy that age could perform such a feat.”
- Motorcycles: A 384 pound Suzuki 400 lifted in a right arm overhead lift. Then using a seated calf raise with platform, Sri Chinmoy lifted a 583 lb Triumph Bonneville 27 times and one additional lift with the rider totalling 731 lbs.
Overall, Sri Chinmoy lifted a total weight of 32,453 lbs, over 16 tons in one day.
Sri Chinmoy is the founder of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, an international marathon team that organizes 500 athletic events each year and the inspiring force behind the World Harmony Run, a global friendship relay covering 80 nations.
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June 1st, 2007 — Sri Chinmoy's students, weightlifting
The world’s smallest horse - named Thumbelina, weighing 57 pounds, and standing just 17 inches tall - her owner Michael Goessling and handler Tago DePietro were honored for their work to benefit children in need. In an award program entitled Lifting Up the World With a Oneness-Heart, 75-year-old fitness champion and world harmony leader Sri Chinmoy honored Thumbelina with three different lifts:
- Thumbelina in the arms of owner Mike Goessling were lifted overhead as Sri Chinmoy used only his right arm to lift a total of 301 pounds
- Thumbelina stood on a platform and was lifted by a special machine that was propelled upward as Sri Chinmoy used a hand gripper (see photo)
- Using a modified seated calf-raise machine, Sri Chinmoy lifted a total weight of 567 pounds as Thumbelina stood between her owner and handler - and he lifted them 33 times!
Thumbelina is the first horse to receive the Lifting Up the World award. She is devoted to raising money and awareness for children in need around the world. “If anyone is right for the job, it is Thumbelina,” say her owners. “Every day, thousands of people fall in love with Thumbelina and every day, she gets one step closer to fulfilling her mission (of raising $1 million for children). It is amazing to witness such a tiny, loving creature accomplish such great works. She is a blessing that we are thrilled to share with the world.”
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